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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

MST3K: Episode 703 - Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 703: Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell

First aired: Comedy Central on 17 February 1996Availability: MST3KVideos.com

It's a sequel.

Remember how I said that most of the Mike episodes of MST3K were good but not quite great? How that, while the high points were not quite as high as some of the later Joel episodes, the low points weren't quite as low either?

Wasn't talking about this episode. And, no, this isn't a high point. This one is bad. Not Manos bad, but bad.

It's a Sword and Sorcery flick called Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell, although, when it was originally released, it was called Deathstalker III: The Warriors from Hell. That means it was a sequel to something.

Would it have helped if we had seen the first two Deathstalker films? I doubt. I seriously doubt it.

Our hero.

You see, the first two had Roger Corman as Executive Producer and were made in Argentina. This one? Filmed in Mexico and Corman nowhere to be found. I would have improved if Roger Corman and the Argentinians had been involved.

Well, perhaps. I didn't see the other Deathstalker films, but I can't imagine the others could have been worse.

In fact, there was a fourth Deathstalker film, and Roger Corman was involved in it. But no Argentinians. They went to Bulgaria for it. I don't want to think too hard about that. Then, again, I don't want to think too hard about this one, either. But, we must do what we must do.

Deathstalker, fresh off two films with two other actors in the role, is at RenFest '88 when some guy with bat wings on his hat attacks and kills the princess while looking for a magic stone, but Deathstalker escapes but meets up with the princess' bad twin sister who betrays him to The Bat-Man, then Twin meets up with Gloria Swanson who was supposed to marry her or her Dead Twin, but Deathstalker escapes and kills the wormy bald bad guy (that's what he looks like when he's not dressing up like Gloria Swanson from Sunset Boulevard), and the princess is rescued, and the magic stone is used with a couple of other magic stones to restore the kingdom or something, then Deathstalker rides off to appear in another film as another actor. The end.

The Bat-Man villain.

The Gloria Swanson villain.

In this film, you don't want the hero to win. He's just so unlikable. Then, the Bat-Man villain is so silly-looking in that metal batwing helmet that you can't like him. Oh, and the main villain, who dresses like Nora Desmond, is actually a short bald guy whose only saving grace is that he's not short, bald, and fat. Still kind of hard to take serious, although the actor isn't a bad actor, just miscast.

Pearl is sick.

Mike & the Bots have some fun with the actors, the acting, the plot, and the film in general. However, I didn't have quite as much fun. Maybe it's that I'm not a fan of the sword and sorcery films. Whatever the reason, I had a hard time making it through this episode.

The Host Segments were hit-and-miss. I did like where M&tB turned the tables on Dr. Forrester by screwing with him while playing like fast food drive-thru workers. It's not often that M&tB win one, but they definitely won that one.

Maybe it's that Dr. Forrester is so out of character since Pearl showed up. He's no longer in charge, and M&tB used that to their advantage.

Again, I didn't care for this episode. Yeah, if it ever is released on home video, I'll buy it, but only because I want to keep my complete collection complete. It's certainly not because this is an entertaining episode. It's middling at best.